Free Where Are They Buried? by Tod Benoit Page A

members for almost 30 years.
    The position seemed to fit. “I think laughter is imperative and it’s the important part of my life, making people laugh so they can forget their problems,” Milton said. “A good laugh is better than anything.”
    After years of failing health, including colon cancer, Milton died in his living room at 93 while taking a nap. He was buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.
    CEMETERY DIRECTIONS: This park borders the east side of I-405 at the Centinela Avenue exit, which is immediately north of the La Tijera Boulevard exit.
    GRAVE DIRECTIONS: Drive straight into the park and loop almost all the way around the hill on which the big mausoleum is located. As you reapproach the park’s entrance, on the left you’ll see a mural of a rabbi officiating at a wedding. Uncle Miltie lies in a crypt immediately to the right of the mural, third row from the bottom.

HUMPHREY BOGART
    DECEMBER 25, 1899 – JANUARY 14, 1957
    While the images of other cinematic luminaries of Hollywood’s bygone golden era have faded, the legend of Humphrey Bogart still looms large. With a trademark lisp, dangling cigarette, and world-weary cynicism, Humphrey weaved his “Bogie” persona into an untouchable archetype of the reluctant but romantic anti-hero possessing a touching vulnerability.
    As Sam Spade in
The Maltese Falcon
, he became a bankable action star, but it was his role opposite Ingrid Bergman in
Casablanca
that made him into a full-fledged leading man. In 1944 he married the twenty-year-old actress Lauren Bacall (it was his fourth marriage) and together they made such memorable features as
To Have and Have Not
and
Key Largo
. In 1951 Humphrey was showcased as an unkempt riverboat captain opposite Katharine Hepburn’s strait-laced missionary role in the universally loved
African Queen
.
    Humphrey made his final film in 1956, the gritty boxing drama
The Harder They Fall
, and shortly after its release he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his esophagus. A few months later in November, he went under the knife again to have some scar tissue in his throat removed, but Humphrey never quite recovered from that surgery. One afternoon, Lauren found him comatose in his wheelchair, and he died the next morning at 57.
    Humphrey was cremated and his ashes interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
    CEMETERY DIRECTIONS: From Highway 2, take the San Fernando Road exit and turn northwest. After a mile, make a right onto Glendale Avenue. The park’s entrance is immediately on the right.
    GRAVE DIRECTIONS: Get a map from the information booth and make your way up to the Gardens of Memory. Humphrey’s ashes are in the Columbarium of Eternal Light, which is located within the Garden section just left of the statue of David. However, these gardens are locked and admittance “is restricted to those possessing a Golden Key of Memory, given to each owner at time of purchase.” Still, sometimes you can get lucky and an owner will let you in.
    If you’re really determined to get into these gardens but don’t want to hang around until a property owner with a key shows up and you don’t want to jump the wall (which I do not condone, and which would constitute trespassing, besides), here’s what you can do: Go to the park before it officially opens at eight o’clock and, though there may be placards in the driveway stating that its closed, drive past them and proceed up to the Gardens of Memory like you own the place. (You’ll need to have previously secured a park map.) This is the time of day when new guests are being interred and the maintenance staff is scurrying everywhere. The doors to the private sections aresometimes propped open by work crews or, if that’s not the case, you’ll at least have a good chance of persuading one of the maintenance people that you’ve forgotten your “Golden Key of Memory” and should be allowed entry.

GEORGE BURNS & GRACIE